Thompson, Evan. A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs – Volume 1: Pre-Divisional Tiebreakers Through 1976. BookBaby (self-published). Pp. 460. $34.95 (paperback). Reviewed by Richard A. Macales By the mid-1960s Major League Baseball was in trouble. BIG TROUBLE! Attendance had tanked. Batting statistics and runs scored––which fans generally prefer over great pitching––“hit” record…
By Andrew McGregor Next year college football — and all of major college sports — will look radically different. During the last few months conference realignment has dramatically reshaped the landscape, shifting traditional powers, disrupting rivalries, and eschewing geographic logic in the quest for media dollars and relevance. This is hardly new. Conference realignment has…
Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith, and Remaking Harvard’s America. University of Illinois Press, 2023. Pp. 290. Acknowledgments, bibliography, conclusion, index, introduction, notes. $28 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Anti-Semitism in the United States is not new, but it has been bubbling to the surface again with alarming frequency. According to FBI statistics, American Jews account…
Baugh, Peter. Force of Nature: Joe Sakic, A Star-Studded Team, and How the Colorado Avalanche Built a Stanley Cup Winner. New York: Triumph Books, 2022. Pp. 288. $19.99 paperback and e-book. Sometimes everything you need to know about a book is right there in the title and subtitle. Oftentimes authors try to make their books…
Dolich, Andy, and Newhouse, Dave. Goodbye, Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust and a Sports Town’s Fight for Survival. Chicago: Triumph Books. 2023. Pp. 256. No index or chapter notes. $28 (hardcover). Reviewed by Richard A. Macales “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared…
Bolsmann, Chris and George N. Kioussis, eds. Soccer Frontiers: The Global Game in the United States, 1863-1913. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2021. Pp. 306. $65.00, hard cover and PDF. Reviewed by Daniel Hart Soccer––the “beautiful game”––swept back into the American consciousness this fall with a fine showing by the United States Men’s National Team…
Wolff, Alexander. Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure (Revised and Expanded Twentieth Anniversary Edition). Durham: Duke University Press, 2022. Pp. 424. $24.95 paperback and e-book. Originally reported during a transformative time for basketball in the 1990s, Alexander Wolff’s book was (and unfortunately still remains) a product of its time. However, despite a fascination with…
Steven A. Riess, Horse Racing the Chicago Way: Gambling, Politics and Organized Crime, 1837-1911. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2022). Reviewed by Nicholas E. Sarantakes As the title indicates, Steven A. Riess studies the rise and fall of horse racing in Chicago in Horse Racing the Chicago Way: Gambling, Politics and Organized Crime, 1837-1911. However, as the…
Aiello, Thomas. Hoops: A Cultural History of Basketball in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2022. Pp. 304. $34 paperback and e-book. Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski Writing a comprehensive history of anything is a hard task, one requiring much discipline, devotion… and selection. Establishing what made a particular historical activity or development what it…
Moore, Louis. We Will Win the Day: The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Athlete, and the Quest for Equality. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2021. Pp. 260. $24.95 paperback and e-book. Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski Louis Moore’s We Will Win the Day is the first book in a new series from the University Press of…
Sport in American History 